now know that our value system has broken down terribly. We have been railroaded by a few among us into a life devoid of mores, respectability, responsibility, uprightness, decency, honesty and integrity. It is now glaring more than ever before that we are going in a wrong direction; being led adrift into a primitive order that condone and accept wrong-doing as normal. We face big challenges now and will encounter tough prospects in the future. But how did I know that we are in trouble? Two recent events confirmed without a shadow of doubt our gradual descent into abnormality. The first was Goodluck Jonathan's Centenary list that mixed the good with the bad and the ugly. The list included several men and women of dishonor, including that of a thief, murderer, criminal and pervert, General (who dash monkey?) Sani Abacha, the Grand Crook of the Failed Republic (GCFR). The second was the shameless and audacious affront of the son of the thief and murderer to write a national icon and man of letters and dignity, Professor Wole Soyinka. Professor Wole Soyinka had rejected the Centenary award because he refused to be grouped with a kleptocratic tyrant like Sani Abacha. Every upright citizen would have refused to be on the same list with a thief like this soldier of fortune, but Abacha's son was neither upright nor honest, hence his unwise response to Professor Soyinka.

It will be a disaster to ignore the ranting of the son of a kleptoctrat, a man who did not only steal from you and I but also truncated our collective dream of a democratic change. As much as Mr. Abacha, Jr. has shown that he is the true son of his evil father in every sense of that word, so should we stand up and reject his banal trash, his idiotic view and his emptiness-fueled response. Like his father the cretin and the thief, Mr. Abacha was so bold and thoughtless he came into the public space with an unregenerate mind that is a vogue in his family. We must not yield the public space of discourse to the son of a kleptocrat who is determined to foist his family's corrupt way of life on the rest of us, and who wish to force criminality on the majority as a standard and as a new norm. The United States just recovered hundreds of millions of dollars stolen by his father from the Nigerian people even while his father was being rewarded by Jonathan, another GCFR title holder, for looting the nation, killing innocent citizens and raping democracy.

Voice of America reported that US officials confirmed that "General Abacha embezzled billions while millions of Nigerians lived in poverty." Newspapers around the world are regaled with news of the over $458 million recovered from Abacha. The State Department referred to Abacha as "one of the most notorious kleptocrats in memory." I urge his son and the rest of his family to read the story from the US Justice Department's website at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/March/14-crm-230.html. Knowing their antecedent, the Abacha family should not be seen nor heard from, but thieves and criminals no longer have shame in Nigeria; thieves are even in power in Nigeria and pretending to be running the affairs of decent men.

Just a few years ago when billions of dollars were recovered from his family and several accounts were traced to his father and his cronies in Europe this guy did not dare to come out in the open to challenge anyone, but because he felt all the criminalities of his deranged father and unrepentant family have been pushed back and locked in the past he could open his foul mouth to insult a man of honour like Professor Soyinka. We must reject his likes and make bold to push his family into the gutters of ignominy where they belong. They were never prosecuted and were allowed to keep what did not belong to them, hence his boldness to talk back and tried to insult our shaper and voice of honour. This is what happens when thieves rule and honour criminal predecessors who are also thieves. Until we take back our nation from thieves and criminals they will always attempt to paint us in the same dirty, filthy colour they are used to. We must reject the affront of thieves and put them and members of their family where they belong - in the gutters where their voices will never be heard, their nostrils filled with stench and their mouths filled with water from the sewers.

May we never again experience an open confrontation from thieves and their family members who had the brazen audacity to dare us to do our worst while living on the wealth stolen from our collective purse. But it is our actions that will ensure that the likes of the Abachas never again raise their voice in our society by making sure that we uphold and defend a standard of ethics and morality. It is our duty to enforce shared values and mores that will isolate thieves and ostracize looters. We have to see to it that the likes of the Abachas, the Iboris, the Alamieyesieghas, the Babangidas, and the other looters who now parade our nation with stolen billions in their filthy hands are never allowed to insult us as either individuals or as a nation. Abacha's son must be reminded that we are still having problems recovering some hundreds of millions of dollars his father stole from Nigeria and it is in his best interest to return to the company of cockroaches and rodents in the gutters.